Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Mobile phones not linked to increased brain tumour risk

23.01.2006

Mobile phones are not associated with an increased risk of the most common type of brain tumour, according to the findings of the first UK study of the relationship between mobile phone use and risk of glioma.

A four-year study by the Universities of Nottingham, Leeds and Manchester, and the Institute of Cancer Research, London, found those who had regularly used a mobile phone were not at a greater overall risk of developing this type of tumour. The research is published online by the British Medical Journal.

There was no relationship between the risk of glioma and number of years since first use of a mobile phone, lifetime years of use and cumulative number of calls or hours of use. Risk was not associated with phone use in rural areas, which had been found to be associated with an increased risk in an earlier Swedish study.

A significantly increased risk was found for tumours which developed on the same side of the head as the phone was reported to have been held, but this was mirrored by a decrease in the risk on the opposite side of the head — making it difficult to interpret as a real effect.

This finding may be due to people with glioma brain tumours linking mobile phone use to the side of the tumour and therefore over-reporting the use of a phone on the same side as their tumour. This results in under-reporting use on the opposite side of the head, say the authors.

Professor Kenneth Muir, of the Division of Epidemiology and Public Health at Nottingham University Medical School, is a co-author of the paper.

Mobile phones have been available in the UK since 1985, but widespread use did not begin until the late 1990s making the number of long term users (over ten years) quite small. This study had limited numbers for estimating the risk of using a phone over a long period.

Early mobile phones were designed to use analogue signals and emitted higher power than current digital phones but the study showed no increased risk of glioma brain tumours with the use of analogue phones.

The study authors concluded: “This study suggests that there are no substantially raised risks of glioma in the ten years after first mobile phone use. Only future studies will be able to address longer latency periods for the development of glioma.”

Die letzten 5 Focus-News des innovations-reports im Überblick:

A research team led by physicists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed molecular nanoswitches that can be toggled between two structurally different states using an applied voltage. They can serve as the basis for a pioneering class of devices that could replace silicon-based components with organic molecules.

The development of new electronic technologies drives the incessant reduction of functional component sizes. In the context of an international collaborative...

At the LASYS 2018, from June 5th to 7th, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) will be showcasing processes for the laser material processing of tomorrow in hall 4 at stand 4E75. With blown bomb shells the LZH will present first results of a research project on civil security.

At this year's LASYS, the LZH will exhibit light-based processes such as cutting, welding, ablation and structuring as well as additive manufacturing for...

There are videos on the internet that can make one marvel at technology. For example, a smartphone is casually bent around the arm or a thin-film display is rolled in all directions and with almost every diameter. From the user's point of view, this looks fantastic. From a professional point of view, however, the question arises: Is that already possible?

At Display Week 2018, scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP will be demonstrating today’s technological possibilities and...